Wood, one of the cheapest and most widely used construction materials humanity has ever employed, has just had its range of uses expanded; Researchers at Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a method of turning wood transparent that’s suitable for mass production.

A team of researchers from MIT created a material that can make use of solar energy in a novel way, absorbing heat and releasing it later, when needed. The researchers led by MIT Prof. Jeffrey Grossman published their results in the journal Advanced Energy Materials. Heat will inevitably dissipate sooner or later, no matter how you try to store or insulate it.

Tomorrow’s bridges, tunnels and other engineering structures might be built with a different type of “smart” concrete: Belgian researchers at the University of Ghent have created a self-repairing type of concrete.

It’s awesome when engineers can take inspiration from nature and design something truly spectacular – now, a Berkeley team has managed to create a material that can shift colors as easy as a chameleon’s skin when pulled or twisted. The material could be used for camouflage or for the next generation of display technologies.